Chattanooga slips past Louisville

Honor Huff scored 25 points and Myles Che added 22 and Sam Alexis had 16 points and 11 rebounds as Chattanooga beat host Louisville 81-71 on Friday night.

The Southern Conference Mocs (2-0) trailed only once and led by as many as 21 in getting the victory.

Southern California transfer Tre White and Mike James led Louisville with 17 points each. The Cardinal (1-1) shot poorly again for the floor at 38.2 percent.

Chattanooga used an 11-0 spurt midway through the second half to lead 54-36 with 11:37 left as Alexis and Che had four points during the spurt. It was Huff's long trey from the right side that forced a Louisville timeout.

Louisville made a late run trailing 70-51 after a three by Huff. The Cardinals scored the next 12 to get within 70-63 as Clark converted a three-point play after a steal and a free throw with 2:16 remaining. Louisville put on a late rally Monday to edge UMBC 94-93.

The Mocs scored eight straight points early in the second half on a three by Alexis and a layup by Huff for a 41-29 advantage with 17:44 remaining.

Chattanooga made 27 of 61 shots from the field for 44.3 percent including 14 of 34 threes. Huff was seven of 13 for threes.

Neither team shot the ball well in the first half as a team. But Huff made enough 3s to score 17 points.

As a team, the Mocs shot 12 of 35 from the field for 34.3 percent which included 8 of 23 threes.

The Mocs outscored Louisville early 14-4 which included 11 straight points to lead 33-23. Huff had two 3s during the spurt. Louisville went six minutes without a field goal. The Cards got the final four points to trail at halftime 33-27.

The Cardinals didn't have much success shooting either making nine of 30 shots for 30 percent from the floor and had 10 turnovers in the half but outrebounded the Mocs 26-21. Caleb Williams and White had six points each.

—Field Level Media